Enhancing Tax Functionality in NetSuite with the SuiteTax Engine

Background

SuiteTax is a tax management engine within NetSuite that helps businesses to determine and calculate tax, taking into account the country and jurisdiction (nexus) of the transactions. It offers a range of features to improve NetSuite's tax capabilities, including support for multiple tax codes and rates, the ability to handle tax exemptions and exclusions, and integration with tax reporting and compliance requirements.SuiteTax is not included as a default feature in NetSuite and must be purchased as a separate app from the NetSuite SuiteApp Marketplace.

Functionalities

Novutech, is taking advantage of the various SuiteApps available on the NetSuite SuiteApp Marketplace to enhance the capabilities of SuiteTax and provide a more customized solution for your clients. Using France localization and country-specific reports can be particularly useful for companies operating in France, as it allows them to access targeted reports and options that are specific to the French market.Mixing SuiteApps can be a powerful way to optimize the functionality of NetSuite for specific business needs. By combining different apps and features, it's possible to create a tailored solution that meets the unique requirements of your clients and helps them to manage their operations more effectively.

• Nexus

SuiteTax introduces the concept of tax transaction type to NetSuite, which allows you to configure the tax codes that will be applied to transactions based on their type. This can be a useful feature for businesses that need to track and manage tax on different types of transactions, such as sales, purchases, or services.By configuring tax codes based on transaction type, it's possible to ensure that the correct tax is applied to each transaction, which can help to improve accuracy and compliance. SuiteTax also provides a range of other features to support tax management and compliance, such as support for multiple tax codes and rates, the ability to handle tax exemptions and exclusions, and integration with tax reporting and compliance requirementsThus, with Suite Tax, we see the following appear

• Domestic sales: sales transactions within the same territory
• Domestic purchases: purchase transactions within the same territory
• Exports: sales transactions with a foreign entity outside the economic area/common trade
• Imports: purchase transactions with a foreign entity outside the economic area/common trade
• Intra-community sales: sales transactions with an entity belonging to a common trade area e.g. Schengen area
• Intra-community purchases: purchase transactions with an entity belonging to a common trade area e.g. Schengen area

SuiteTax determines the type of transaction based on the information entered for the entity and proposes the appropriate tax code for the transaction. A nexus is a tax jurisdiction or geographic area where a business operates and is subject to its own tax regulations. It can be defined at the country, municipality, city, state, or economic zone level.With SuiteTax enabled, you can create a hierarchy of nexuses, with a national-level nexus at the top and multiple subnexuses below it. A nexus must be assigned to a subsidiary after it is created, in order to allow the system to create default tax codes and tax types associated with that nexus. This helps to ensure that the correct tax is applied to transactions based on the location of the business and the tax regulations in effect for that jurisdiction

• Tax type

In SuiteTax, a tax type is used to specify the accounts that will be impacted by a transaction. A tax type must be linked to a nexus, which defines the tax jurisdiction or geographic area where the tax type will be used. By setting up tax types and linking them to nexuses, it's possible to control which accounts are impacted by transactions based on the location of the business and the tax regulations in effect for that jurisdiction. This helps to ensure that the correct tax is applied to transactions and that the appropriate accounts are used to record the tax.

• Tax codes

In SuiteTax, a tax code is used to specify the type of tax rate that will be applied during a transaction. A tax code is linked to a nexus through a tax type, which defines the accounts that will be impacted by the transaction. SuiteTax can also be configured to automatically update tax rates with the correct effective date, which can help to ensure that the correct tax is applied to transactions and that the business is compliant with current tax regulations

• Tax schedule

In SuiteTax, a tax schedule is used to link an item to a set of tax codes based on the type of transaction. This can be useful for applying the appropriate tax to specific items or for grouping items that are subject to similar tax regulations. You can create a saved search and link different items to it, which can be helpful when you want to apply a specific tax schedule to a group of items. Using tax schedules can help to streamline tax management and ensure that the correct tax is applied to transactions. By linking items to tax schedules based on transaction type and location, it's possible to automate the process of applying tax and improve compliance with tax regulations.

• Tax lookup logic

When performing transactions via Suite Tax there is a priority order for the selection of the tax code. Firstly, the Suite Tax engine will look to see if the vendor has a default tax code, which represents the highest level. If the vendor does not have a default tax code then the engine will look to see if the item is linked to a tax code via a tax schedule and if there is no tax code on the item then it will use the ones set by default on the nexus. In order for the system to recognize the correct type of transaction, it is necessary that the address of the entity is correctly filled in as well as the country / nexus in the tax registration tab. Moreover, it is necessary to fill in a tax reg number and to put it by default in the field default tax reg so that the engine will be able to identify the country of the entity and propose the correct transaction type and the tax code which goes with it. Suite Tax allows its users to enter a fake tax registration number, but this feature can be disabled if needed by the users.For EU tax reg numbers the tax suite offers the possibility to perform a VIES check to validate the VAT number.With Suite Tax comes a new subtab on transaction forms called tax details that makes it possible to manually change the default tax code of a transaction if the user wants to apply a different rate to his transaction. To do so the user must click on preview tax button then check the tax details override box.

Important: By default, with Suite Tax, the tax point date determines when a transaction is taxed, rather than the transaction date. In most cases, the tax point date is the same as the transaction date. However, the user has the option to manually change the tax point date on the tax details tab or by checking the "Use fulfillment to modify tax point date" box on the nexus page.